How are cars from the 1950s different from todays cars?

Answer 1

In 1950's cars, you had flat head engines either six or eight cylinders. Acturally the 1940 Ford came out with a v8 engine. We had one, two, three and four cylinder engines up until then by and large. In 1953, cars were coming out with overhead cam engines and much bigger pistons. We souped up engines with modified manifolds and carberators. We went to four barrel carbs then, some electric fuel pumps and started boring and stroking for more power or more speed as the case may be. To go faster we increased the bore and shortened the stroke and added three quarter cams. We polished exhaust for slicker relief of fumes and pressure and added dual exhausts. We liked the sounds of Hollywood mufflers on our cars and we traded cars often. You could buy a good car for $200 then. But, you might work all summer to pay it off. Gas averaged 28 cents a gallon, but a penny or nickle were harder to come by.

Today, well, everything is different. A four cylinder car can do what an eight cylinder car could do then. We did not have air. Cars had much more weight then. You could make five cars now from the metal in old cars. We have better paint now than then. We used to undercoat with tar to keep off rust. Now cars are painted through and through at the factory. MOST cars back then were standard shift. We had some automatics. The 1950 Desota came out with fluid drive. We called them fudgeamatics. They took a while to get going. But not to bad. I have a Villager and it reminds me sound-wise of my Dad's old Desota. When iI hear that old servo kick down, I love to hear it.